Read the following passage with three blanks. Which of the following combinations of phrasal verbs is IMPOSSIBLE to fit into the blanks while maintaining both grammatical correctness and the logical flow of the passage?
"The initial public offering was highly anticipated, but the company decided to ____ it at the last minute due to market volatility. Analysts suggested that the management tried to ____ the poor financial health of the firm, but the leaked documents eventually ____ the truth, leading to a severe drop in investor confidence."
C
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is a "which is impossible" cloze test question focusing on the strict idiomatic and syntactic constraints of phrasal verbs.
Step 1: Analyze the first blank. The company decided to cancel or postpone the IPO. "Put off", "call off", "back out of", and "hold over" can all contextually fit, though "back out of it" is slightly less formal, it is grammatically acceptable.
Step 2: Analyze the second blank. The management tried to minimize or hide the poor financial health. "Gloss over", "brush aside", "sweep under", and "play down" all carry this meaning.
Step 3: Analyze the syntactic constraint of the second blank. "Sweep under" is part of the fixed idiom "sweep under the rug" or "sweep under the carpet". It cannot directly take an abstract object like "the poor financial health". You cannot "sweep under an issue"; you must "sweep an issue under the rug". This makes Option C grammatically impossible.
Step 4: Analyze the third blank for Option C. "Let on" means to reveal a secret, but it is intransitive or used with "about" (e.g., "let on about the truth"). It cannot take a direct object like "the truth". This provides a second fatal grammatical flaw in Option C.
Step 5: Verify other options. Option A ("put off", "gloss over", "bring out"), Option B ("call off", "brush aside", "give away"), and Option D ("hold over", "play down", "point out") all use phrasal verbs that correctly accept the objects provided in the passage.
Answer: C